Charter Communications beats quarterly estimates on demand for bundled plans

Jan 31 (Reuters) - Charter Communications CHTR.O beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly results on Friday, driven by higher-than-expected subscriber growth for its mobile services which can be bundled with broadband plans.

Shares of the Stamford, Connecticut-based company were up 3.4% in premarket trade.

Charter has seen increased demand for its Spectrum Mobile service, available exclusively to Spectrum Internet customers, that allows them to bundle high-speed mobile access with broadband offerings.

Several telecom majors such as AT&T T.N and Verizon VZ.N have opted to converge their services to enhance customer retention and drive market share through bundled offerings that integrate internet and mobile services.

In September, Charter introduced the Spectrum One plan with internet speeds of 500 megabytes per second for $30/month, when bundled with two mobile lines or cable TV.

The company added 529,000 mobile lines in the fourth quarter, higher than 520,190 additions expected by Visible Alpha.

The broadband and cable TV provider said residential mobile service revenue grew 37.4% in the reported quarter, helping its total revenue to grow about 2% to $13.93 billion, above analysts' average estimates of $13.88 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Charter lost 177,000 internet customers in the quarter, higher than expectations for 156,880 losses, according to Visible Alpha.

The losses were primarily due to the end of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a federal subsidy which provided internet access for low-income households in the U.S., and the impacts of Hurricanes Milton and Helene that disrupted Florida businesses during the quarter.

Charter reported earnings of $10.10 per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, above estimates of $9.36.

The company expects full-year 2025 capital expenditure to be about $12 billion, compared with LSEG estimates of $12.09 billion.